title: Characterization of human pluripotent stem cells.
abstract: Human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), whether embryonic stem cells or induced PSCs, offer enormous opportunities for regenerative medicine and other biomedical applications once we have developed the ability to harness their capacity for extensive differentiation. Central to this is our ability to identify and characterize such PSCs, but this is fraught with potential difficulties that arise from a tension between functional definitions of pluripotency and the more convenient use of 'markers', a problem exacerbated by ethical issues, our lack of knowledge of early human embryonic development, and differences from the mouse paradigm.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Science, Centre for Stem Cell Biology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: Paul J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Gokhale
authors.forename: Peter W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Andrews
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology / Q000637:transplantation; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000502:physiology* / Q000637:transplantation